One of the one percent in 13 million.

[Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi]

As a marketing director with a publishing company she always needs to be at her polite best when dealing with writers and book critics. Vasundhara Raj Baigra must remain calm and friendly, no matter how demanding they sometimes may be. So… how does she deal with her own frustrations and inner tension? “Boxing!” declares Ms Baigra.

While insisting that her clients are always pleasant to deal with, you’ll find her every evening at a Vasant Vihar training studio busy in her boxing sessions. “It helps me push any negative feelings aside.”

She’s now been at it for nine months, with boxing becoming important in her life. “I feel empowered by it all.” Giving her the strength to get on with career and life on her terms. Ms Baigra, 35, does confess she drifted into boxing rather casually, having done yoga, gymming (“I hated it completely!”) and pilates. She took to these “not with the aim of being fit, but to feel happy.”

During training sessions the gentle woman does sometimes (“just sometimes!”) fantasize the punching bag as the face of some irritating person, “and getting to smack him—‘her’ bhi ho sakta hain!”—is such a stress buster!”

Is there anybody bothering her right now—some famous author perhaps or a fussy critic—she’d like to smash instead of her poor punching bag?

Ms Baigra laughs—and thrusts her fist into the air.

[This is the 202nd portrait of Mission Delhi project]

Boxer ahead

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